Dave D wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
I purchased a Gateway laptop about 1.5 years ago and have only used it
maybe 100 hours at most. Recently it locked up so I shut it down. But
when it rebooted it did not fully load. Then I think it asked if I
wanted to reload, restore (or something like this) the Gateway
software. I clicked yes but now I get a black screen with a choice of a

boot or bios menu (which is only for the computer settings). Then it
runs and says "operating system not found".
Gateway did not provide a restore disk with the laptop (now they want
$35.00 for the disks). I tried my desk top restore disk and it was
working but then it said "hard drive not found, can not continue". How
do I fix this?


At a guess, it sounds like either the hard drive has failed or the
motherboard's IDE controller, more likely the former.
You'll need a tech to physically examine it to give a definite diagnosis
though.

I agree the drive is probably hosed. You can buy a laptop-to-desktop
hard drive adapter for just a few bucks. Get one of those and install
the drive as a slave in your home computer. BIOS should report if the
drive is toast or not. If it works at all, immediately back up anything
vital to your desktop. Then try it again in your laptop. If it doesn't
work there, it's likely your laptop motherboard. That's serious. You
might find one on eBay, but it won't be cheap or easy to replace.

If it doesn't work, I hope there was nothing irreplaceable on it. It's
lost....

jak


Dave